I think there’s a degree of truth to this; corruption was a massive problem during the Jiang and Hu eras, and that certainly affected the booming private construction industry. It is visible to a degree when you visit places like cheap hotels in lower-tier cities.
I will emphasise ‘private’ though, state projects and infrastructure never seems anything but well-built and well-maintained, at least to my layman’s eye. The Chinese HSR for example is incredibly efficient and safe (possibly the safest railway system in the world by accidents-per-mile if I recall correctly). And obviously the idea that the Three Gorges is about to collapse is just nonsense.
The hilarious part is that of course China is going to have cheap, shoddily-made buildings, builders that try to skirt regulations, local administrative corruption, and so on. Every country has that, it is simply impossible to have everything be 100% perfect, as there is no utopia and never will be.
The thing is, those things happen in China at absurdly lower rates then they do in places like the US, where oftentimes it’s legal or entirely unenforced. For every terrible building built by a corrupt company, there is an entire housing block of such buildings in the US.
It’s like using a magnifying glass to find a ding in someone’s car as proof that their car is about to explode… when your own car is on fire.
I think there’s a degree of truth to this; corruption was a massive problem during the Jiang and Hu eras, and that certainly affected the booming private construction industry. It is visible to a degree when you visit places like cheap hotels in lower-tier cities.
I will emphasise ‘private’ though, state projects and infrastructure never seems anything but well-built and well-maintained, at least to my layman’s eye. The Chinese HSR for example is incredibly efficient and safe (possibly the safest railway system in the world by accidents-per-mile if I recall correctly). And obviously the idea that the Three Gorges is about to collapse is just nonsense.
The hilarious part is that of course China is going to have cheap, shoddily-made buildings, builders that try to skirt regulations, local administrative corruption, and so on. Every country has that, it is simply impossible to have everything be 100% perfect, as there is no utopia and never will be.
The thing is, those things happen in China at absurdly lower rates then they do in places like the US, where oftentimes it’s legal or entirely unenforced. For every terrible building built by a corrupt company, there is an entire housing block of such buildings in the US.
It’s like using a magnifying glass to find a ding in someone’s car as proof that their car is about to explode… when your own car is on fire.
Removed by mod